Case Study CIE - Storm Technology Ltd · The group’s HR and Finance function use the SharePoint...

SharePointCase Study CIE

Two years ago SharePoint was usedpurely as a document management solutionfor our mechanical engineers in the Irish Raildivision of the CIE Group. Today it hasgrown to become one of our most invaluableplatforms from which we run multiplebusiness solutions, used by hundreds ofpeople across many divisions. It’s a real acase of from little acorns tall oaks grow.

OverviewWell known for its strengths as a document managementsolution, SharePoint started life in the CIE Group as a pointsolution implemented to meet the document managementneeds of mechanical engineers in Irish Rail Division of thecompany. Today its usage has mushroomed and it is nowone of the Group’s most invaluable IT platforms.

What’s intriguing about SharePoint’s growth and expansionat CIE is how it spread organically through a steadyincrease in demand from end users as they experienced theplatform firsthand, saw what it could and understood how itcould be applied to their area of the business to helpimprove performance.

From simple beginnings, SharePoint is now usedextensively throughout the Group. CIE Group IT&T use it tomanage the full range of IT services support and help deskfunctions. From help desk portal, to full end-to-endprocurement administration, through to complete projectand portfolio management, SharePoint is now thebackbone of the IT&T services and support infrastructure.

The platform’s use extends to other divisions within the CIEGroup as well. It is used by CIE tours as the portal, documentmanagement and interactive discussion board from which itmanages the international collaboration and development ofthe division’s key sales and marketing brochure which is usedto promote the division’s services globally.

The group’s HR and Finance function use the SharePointplatform to automate certain processes as well as runinternal staff surveys. And naturally, it remains a strongholdas an integral document management and collaborationtool used across the Irish Rail division where it first beganlife in the CIE Group of companies.

The growth and expansion of SharePoint has naturallybrought benefits; productivity, process improvement andspeed are three key areas where the CIE Group has gainedfrom the extensive use of the SharePoint platform.

Having one platform from which we canrun multiple different business solutionsmakes great sense. It’s been good for theIT&T Group and good for the overallbusiness.

Amy Richards, Service Desk Manager, CIE Group IT&T

Amy Richards, Service Desk ManagerCIE Group IT&T

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SharePoint - Case Study - CIE

BackgroundCIE group is a long-standing icon in the Irish public servicessector. Responsible for providing public transport servicesto over 235 million people per year, the group is made up offour key divisions - Irish Rail, Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann andCIE tours.

Collectively the group employs over 12,000 people whoseIT needs are serviced by the CIE Group IT&T.

The Early Days The initial impetus to deploy SharePoint in the CIE groupwas driven by the document management needs of themechanical engineers operating in the Irish Rail division.Responsible for the smooth and safe running of Ireland’snetwork of trains, employees needed a single documentrepository where they could be assured that the latest, mostrelevant, accurate versions of the information anddocumentation they required were stored, coupled withsmart search capabilities to enable easy and effectiveretrieval.

SharePoint was originally chosen for aproof of concept and from that it becameclear it was the ideal solution to deliver onthe document management needs of ourmechanical engineers. It provided a singleplace to store all the division’s criticaldocumentation. Our engineers could getwhat they needed quickly and with theconfidence that the information wasaccurate, up-to-date and authorized for use.

This early exposure to SharePoint and the emergingunderstanding of the power of the platform led to itsexpanded use in other areas of the CIE Group.

Firstly, Group IT&T saw the opportunity to deploySharePoint as the backbone of its internal help desk portal.After working with Storm Technology the team created aone-stop portal for all staff to use. The portal enabledpeople to report and track IT issues or support requests, itprovided up-to-date, accurate information on IT processes,approved documentation along with relevant contacts forinternal support teams and approved third parties.

Because people were getting a betterservice faster using the new help desk portal,it got them thinking about other businessprocesses in the company that would benefitfrom SharePoint. And they came to us to seeif they were do-able.

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What followed was interesting – to say the least!


Growth and ExpansionToday SharePoint is widely used across the CIE Group. Itsgrowth and expansion was driven by the first-hand userexperience of the benefits it could bring. The platform isnow the backbone behind many of CIE’s business solutionsand is responsible for the automation of manual processesacross the organization.

For example working with the team at Storm TechnologyGroup IT&T expanded its use of SharePoint from astraightforward IT Help Desk Portal to a full IT Support Sitethat delivers a myriad of services including: -

End-to-end administration of the IT procurementprocess – from enabling initial end user requests, toproviding details on approved providers along with all therelevant documentation and the automation of simple andcomplex approval processes, SharePoint underpins themany end-to-end administration processes.

Server build request – the automation of each stagerequired in a server build with workflows to ensure thecorrect steps are followed and approvals sought.Dashboards and reports from SharePoint show the stage ofprogress for any request and transparency into anyroadblocks that might be encountered.

Product and service development – Group IT&T deploySharePoint and project server to manage the end-to-endprocesses associated with IT project requests that comefrom divisions across the group. The solutions are thecentral hub to which all requests are submitted – meaningthat at a glance the Group IT&T get a clear understandingof existing and future demands on their resources. Fulldetails of the costs, resources and timelines for all standardIT services are provided so that other business areas cansee the impact of what they are requesting and setexpectations accordingly.

Project server in conjunction with SharePoint provides acentral project management hub under which sits a myriadof sub-sites that cover all the current projects within IT&T.Each sub-site has a series of comprehensive dashboardswhich outline the key KPIs for the projects, costs, resourceallocations, bottlenecks, issues for escalations and so forth.Furthermore each sub site has a work recording system,which enables staff to record time that is being spent on theproject - providing accurate costing and 100% visibility intowhere resources are being focused.

In addition to the expansion of SharePoint across Group IT&T,other areas of the organization have benefited too. CIE Tourswho is responsible for providing coach tours andindependent vacation packages to over 36,000 people peryear use SharePoint as collaboration portal, a documentationmanagement solution and an interactive internationaldiscussion board to drive the development of its annualbrochure. Workflows govern approval processes and triggernotification and alerts keeping progress on track.

The SharePoint platform is now critical toour business because it touches so manyparts of our organization. From the simpleautomation of leave requests to the complexend-to-end management of our entireportfolio of IT projects SharePoint is theplatform powering the end solutions.

Where to next?The CIE Group intends to continue to expand its use ofSharePoint to automate processes and provide businesssolutions to meet the needs of the different areas of thebusiness.

In Group IT&T further plans include working with the teamat Storm Technology to the roll out project server tostrategically manage its full portfolio of IT projects. Inaddition, visual studio is under consideration as a solutionto better enable users to design, change and implementtailored workflows to drive business processes in line withspecific business needs. To drive adoption and ensure agood user experience plans are afoot to design a modernfrontend interface with a “web-type” look and feel, intuitiveaccess and navigation for all new and existing solutionspowered by the SharePoint platform.

For us it’s an ongoing journey. There arestill many areas of our business whereSharePoint can bring value – it’s the beautyof having platform versus a point solution.



Lessons and LearningFor Group IT&T one thing was key; that was having a goodpartner on board for the journey. For them that partner wasStorm Technology – technically strong in theirunderstanding of SharePoint and commercially astute intheir ability to understand the different business needs ofthe CIE group.

Storm Technology has been involved inthe roll out and expansion of the SharePointplatform since day one. We rely on them forday-to-day SharePoint support – so as wecan focus on our own jobs - as well as beinga trusted partner that can help us understandthe best way to use the platform and deployit to deliver the business solutions we seek.

The bottom lineFor the business the benefits are clear –

using SharePoint to run multiple businesssolutions drives productivity and costreductions.

Productivity, process improvement and speed are three keyareas where the CIE Group has gained from the extensiveuse of the SharePoint platform. And while it clearly makesgood economic sense for the overall business it hasbrought very real benefits for people too.

Personally what’s best for me is thecomplete visibility SharePoint gives us intoour projects, costs, resource allocationsand deliverables right across the IT&Tgroup. It simply makes us more effective inwhat we do.




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About Storm TechnologyStorm Technology is a leading business technologyconsultancy - and Microsoft Certified Gold Partner - thatspecialises in building solutions to help clients gainbetter value faster from the investments they have madein Microsoft technologies.

For more information visit www.storm.ie or contact us at:

Dublin Office:

Capel Building, Marys Abbey, Dublin 7

Telephone: +353 1 416 1226

Galway Office:

Galway Business Park, Upper Newcastle Road, Galway

Telephone: +353 91 509770

Email: [email protected]

Case Study CIE - Storm Technology Ltd · The group’s HR and Finance function use the SharePoint...

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